Kam, there are BAC calculators all over the net. Google it. A general rule is that each beer adds .02 to your BAC, and you burn about a beer an hour. This calcuation is just a rule of thumb, and is heavily influenced by your weight, what you have in your stomach, and how much you have slept. So for instance, if you drink 4 beers in the first hour, you can then have a beer an hour for the next few hours and be right at the legal limit.
As a prosecutor who sometimes has to deal with these as part of the job, let me address some of the misnomers and standard defense bar talking points..... (1)First, true they could choose to remain silent from the outset, but why? Because they're intoxicated and they're afraid of possible slurred speech being caught by the officer's mic? I mean, theoretically, I guess you don't have to speak during ANY encounter with police, be it a speeding ticket, an assault charge, or anything else for that matter. Maybe from a self-preservation perspective it seems wise at the time because they don't want to give the jury anything to sink their teeth into. But there's always a counter to that tactic once we get in front of a jury. (2) Contrary to the aforementioned ad, we DO NOT have a "RIGHT" to refuse a breath or blood specimen. Texas, like most other states, has an 'implied consent' law that comes with our getting a drivers license.....remember, driving is a privilege not a right. So the law ACTUALLY mandates us to comply with the officer's request to give either a breath or blood sample during the course of the DWI investigation. The portable breath test that was mentioned above is, as stated correctly there, inadmissable in court. It is simply another tool to help officers determine who is intoxicated and who's not. Again, a tool but not dispositive. An officer doesn't have to even offer the person a chance to blow on the portable, and many times they don't - simply choosing to rely upon the standardized field sobriety tests and their observations to make the call on whether or not they think a driver is intoxicated before they transport them to the station to give them an opportunity to give a sample of breath on the Intoxilyzer (which IS admissible in court). (3) The 'hearing' he is referring to is an ALR hearing. It's an administrative hearing (not a judicial one) that determines the license suspension for refusing to provide a breath/blood sample. (4) I agree that DWI is an opinion crime if I don't have a breath/blood test. But, as mentioned earlier, there are ways we handle refusals or videotapes with uncooperative defendants. By the time I go through voir dire indoctrinating the panel on the issues as well as the legal definition of 'intoxication', then lay the groundwork with my officer on direct, then HOPEFULLY get a shot at a testifying defendant on cross, then get to go last in closing, I've had really good success with juries coming back with convictions. Then in punishment I will argue for jail time to the jury and I've never had them come back with less than I've asked. Ever since I've gotten out of law school and taken this job there has been a definite 'shift' in my perspective on things. I find myself looking at the 'big picture' of why public policy drives some of the laws such as DWI. It only takes a couple of encounters with a family who's lost a loved one in an intox manslaughter case to realize how dangerous it is for any of us to roll around in a 4,000 pound vehicle without the normal use of our mental or physical faculties. I mean, at the end of the day, most of us agree with that I think. We are all-- to use a tug-of-war analogy- -pulling on the same side of the rope here. DWI law is a cottage industry for defense attorneys for several reasons. And God love 'em. Some of my best friends are defense attorneys. They serve a necessary and vital function in our system. And I will work with an intellectually honest lawyer who has a fairly objective view of the case's strengths and weaknesses for each side. I can play ball with that. But every once in a while you will run into somebody (and we've all had to deal with these people no matter what type of job we're in...) who try to get cute and are seemingly opposed to being reasonable....and these are the ones who end up on the business end of an ass-whoopin' at trial.
